A character with a gun fires quickly and repeatedly at the ground near another character's feet. The victim makes a series of awkward, near-reflexive jumps to save himself from being shot. Though his pride takes a sore beating, the victim's tender tootsies almost always survive unscathed.

Given the number of parodies and subversions listed below, this is obviously a Dead Horse Trope nowadays.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

In Black Lagoon anime, the local triad leader Mr. Chang had to do some unusual poses to dodge the full-automatic barrage of Browning Automatic Rifle by Gretel. She evens compliments on his "dancing".

In Soul EaterBlackStar and Tsubaki end up doing this when the latter decides to confront a roomful of mobsters armed with tommy guns.

Pale Rider. The corrupt marshalls led by Stockburn force one of the pan miners to do this, until he reaches for his own gun and they can 'legally' shoot him.

Inverted in the 1984 comedy Blind Date. Bruce Willis' character gets hold of revolver and forces his date's psycho ex-boyfriend to dance at gunpoint. After commanding the guy to moonwalk, Bruce stares for a moment, screams "I HATE THAT SHIT!" and then starts shooting at his feet.

Subversion: In the gangster flick Goodfellas, Tommy actually shoots the bartender, Spider in the foot as he's doing the Bullet Dance.

Similarly, the conclusion of Spike Lee's film Bamboozled, where the gangsta rapper Mau-Maus force Manray to tapdance one last time before shooting him. Spike Lee uses footage from the scene in "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" to contrast with the tragedy of the scene.

In Back To The Future Part III, Mad Dog Tannen fires a gun at Marty's feet while ordering him to "dance". Spoofed as Marty turns it into a full-fledged moonwalk, jumping on a loose board to launch a spittoon on Tannen for a finale.

As another nod to Michael Jackson, you can hear Marty singing the chorus of "Billie Jean" to himself as he moonwalks.

An alternate version can be seen in Hero, when the Imperial archers attack a calligraphy school, unleashing wave after wave of arrows. Nameless and Flying Snow stand in front of the school, brushing aside as many arrows as they can with martial arts moves that closely resemble dancing.

In Inspector Gadget, our favorite bumbling cyborg is face to face with his evil robotic double on the Roberto Clemente Bridge. When asked if he knows how to dance, Gadget mentions taking lessons not too long ago in what quickly becomes a Noodle Incident as Robo-Gadget fires at his feet.

During the finale of Little Shop of Horrors, Seymour grabs a revolver and tries to shoot Audrey II to little effect. Audrey snatches the gun from his hand, does some Gun Twirling then fires at Seymour's feet during the song "Mean Green Mother From Outer Space".

Literature

Wannabe hardcase Bill Wendee does this to the local schoolteacher in the short story "Bill Wendee Likes an Edge" in Sagebrush Sleuth by J.T. Edson.

Tongue-in-cheek variation: In the second episode of the 2006 series of Robin Hood, Robin and his friends are robbed by bandits, then turn the tables; after tying the bandits up, Robin gets them dancing by shooting arrows at their feet.

The never-getting-hit part was subverted in Band of Brothers, where Lt. Winters got hurt in the shin by a ricochet shot from the floor and had to have the shrapnel removed.

On Cleveland's Big Chuck and Lil' John Show a skit showed a cowboy at a saloon offering "Dance Lessons $20". He gives the beautiful saloon girl the money, but instead of dancing with her, a gunslinger comes out and everyone else starts clapping as they do the bullet dance.

Parodied on an Australian sketch comedy program where a gunslinger makes an old prospector bullet dance, only for it to be revealed as an audition for So You Think You Can Dance?.

Another Australian skit spoofing Kung Fu had cowboys doing this to Caine. His hat falls off and he's mistaken for Midnight Oil singer Peter Garrett thanks to his bald head — the cowboys flee before he starts singing as well as dancing.

The Red Dwarf episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse" has the leader of the gunmen get Kryten to dance this way.

In an episode of The Slammer, the Governor does this to Gimbert after he has lost the Governor's showtime suit and the Governor has to host the Freedom Show dressed as a cowboy (It Makes Sense in Context).

On Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, there was a sketch set in a typical Western bar. Goldie Hawn asked Alan Sues if he wanted to dance. When he said yes, she produced a gun and began doing this to him. For good measure, guest star Lorne Greene commented, "He's very light on his feet."

Xena: Warrior Princess: In "The Xena Scrolls", Dr Janice Covington (Gabrielle) does this to the bandit who attempts to steal Mel (Xena)'s briefcase. Using a tommy gun.

Music

In one of Stan Roger's songs, an Albertan rancher makes some cattle rustlers do the bullet dance. In this case, it's the hero doing it to the bad guys.

Theatre

In the Act One finale of Girl Crazy, when Danny tries to restrain Molly from running off to Mexico with a Romantic False Lead, she calls him a dancing man and starts firing at his feet.

Video Games

Video game parody: In Devil May Cry 3, Dante, the hero, attempts to shoot the villainous Jester in the feet; Jester breaks into the Charleston as he dodges the bullets.

In Skies of Arcadia, one of Gilder's S-Moves has him do exactly that to his enemies.

Referenced by the Flash Gitz of Dawn of War (the fastest-shooting ork unit), who have "Dance, 'umie! Dance!" as a quote. Of course, they're not shooting at their feet, but ork shooting being what it is, they might as well be.

Parodied in Star Wars: Behind the Magic, which offers weapons demonstrations for, among other things, a blaster. The Stormtrooper used for the test subject starts dancing as is normally expected of the trope, and by the time the blaster has stopped firing, he's doing actual dance moves. He's finally shot in the chest when his routine ends.

Web Animation

Lampshaded in a sing-song voice and subsequently subverted in the 'Spanish Class' episode of Stickman Exodus.

Western Animation

One of the most famous subversions was in the Bugs Bunnycartoon "Bugs Bunny Rides Again", where Yosemite Sam fires at Bugs' feet and orders him to "Dance!" — and Bugs breaks into a full-bore softshoe routine complete with straw hat and cane. Bugs then yells "Take it, Sam!" and the confused Sam does — straight into an open mine shaft.

Variation: In an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a man swings his dual dao swords at Uncle Iroh's feet, prompting him to dance and avoid the blades. Upon closer inspection you can see he just slashes in front of his feet, so it really wouldn't hurt him if he didn't move (but then he wouldn't get paid for dancing).

Parodied on The Simpsons episode "Burns' Heir", in a flashback where Mr. Burns recalls performing this trick with a single shot pistol - firing, manually loading a bullet and powder into the muzzle, cocking the hammer, and firing again while the victim dances obligingly.

In the Dilbert animated series Dogbert abuses his diplomatic immunity by commanding a group of Elbonians to dance while firing at their feet. Dogbert then tosses them bandanas and orders them to riverdance.

Parodied in Kim Possible, in the episode where Ron is obsessed with the boy band "Oh Boyz". He gets out of a cage and dodges heat seeking lasers by — you guessed it— dancing.

In an episode of The Clone Wars, Mandalorian Death Watch combatants make a bunch of captured droids to dance the "cowboy dance".

Variation: In Batman: Assault on Arkham, Harley Quinn tries the shoot the Joker in his cell. When he points out that the cell, including the transparent front plate, is bulletproof, she sticks the gun into an air hole and fires a shot that ricochets around inside, forcing the Joker into silly-looking gyrations to avoid it.

Real Life

Real LifeBad Man Clay Allison is alleged to have actually done this to someone; the story goes that the man later tracked him down and returned the favor. Allison was supposedly so impressed he didn't even hold a grudge, despite the fact that (unlike the other guy) Allison had a club foot.

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